Off-page SEO

Ranking your website on Google or other search engines for more organic traffic goes beyond on-page SEO.

To get your website noticed on search engines, you need off-page SEO.

Off-page SEO should be part of your SEO strategy that also includes on-page SEO and technical SEO.

Keep reading to learn:

What off-page SEO is?
How off-page SEO works?
How to use off-page SEO?

Let’s dive right in.

What is off-page SEO

Off-page SEO is efforts made outside of your website to help web pages rank higher in the search engines.

Building backlinks, promoting your website and its content on social media and doing guest blogging for other websites are all included in off-page SEO.

The quality and quantity of backlinks help Google and other search engines determine your webpage’s rank.

One of the top ranking factors and also an effective strategy for off-page SEO is link building.

Benefits of an off-page SEO strategy include:

Adding to the on-page SEO work already done.
Builds credibility
Adds Relevance.
Make your website more trustworthy.
Help with topical authority.

Why is Off-Page SEO important?

Search engines want to give searchers the best results.

To give searchers the best results search engines look at a lot of different factors, including on-page SEO factors , other factors AND off-page SEO factors.

But let’s stick to off-page SEO.

Off-page SEO factors tell search engines about the trustworthiness and authority of a website.

Features of a high-quality website include:

Backlinks from other websites.
Brand mentions on social media (Facebook likes, tweets, Pins, etc.)
Bookmarks and shares among communities.

Search engines rank your website higher in the search results using these signals.

On-Page SEO vs Off-Page SEO

On-page SEO is everything done on your website to better your ranking on search engines.

And, off-page is everything you do off your website to rank better on search engines.

Both are important and help get your website or its content high in the search rankings and stay there.

Off-Page SEO Checklist

7 Off-page SEO techniques:

Link Building
Social Media
Local SEO
Content Marketing
Influencer marketing
Forums
PR

Off-page SEO strategies:

Link Building

Links from other websites show Google that your website can be trusted as a source of information.

More votes for your website helps it to rank on search engines.

But, less votes for your website means your website isn’t trustworthy or topic authority.

So, building external links to your website should be your number one off-page strategy.

The type of links you can get include:

Natural or earned links: Editorial publisher or consumer organic brand mentions.
Building links: Reaching out to publishers for link placements or mentions.

Stick to using white hat strategies to get backlinks.

Because Google penalises websites that flood forums and comment sections with links to their webpages.

Social Media

Social media as part of an off-page SEO strategy can:

Get your website domain authority.
Increase your website’s search engine ranking.

How?

By sharing content on social media to bring traffic to your website.

This tells Google that you must have high-quality content because you’re getting traffic from diverse sources.

Just remember to engage your social media community consistently and use it to distribute your content.

More engagement brings:

Domain authority
Shares
Backlinks
Clicks.

Local SEO

Local SEO is optimising your website for local search results.

This strategy is used for brick-and-mortar businesses or consumer businesses in a specific location, for example, hair salons, air conditioning companies, or supermarkets.

Local SEO helps your business rank on search engines that cater to consumers in local areas.

Rank on local search engines by:

Adding your business to local and national business directories, for example, Google My Business.
Adding your business to review website listings, for example, Trip Advisor and Yelp, and responding to reviews.
Ask your customers to leave positive reviews online.
Keep the same contact information on all digital platforms.

Content Marketing

Content marketing attracts new visitors and reaches your target audience with information that knows their pain points, solves their problems and addresses their needs.

On-page content marketing efforts include:

Blog posts.
Guest blogging.
Downloadable offers.
Surveys.
Reports.

These methods drive organic traffic to your website, generate new leads, and improve your website’s search engine ranking.

However, guest blogging, an off-page SEO strategy, is reaching out to high domain authority website decision makers and writing blog posts for them to publish.

Guest blogging’s benefits include:

Reaching a new audience in your target market.
Valuable backlinks by writing for other high-authority domains.
Earning you more website traffic.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing in digital marketing is all about using Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to build your brand, bring attention to your content, and reach new audiences.

Although different to Google searches, social media users also use social networks like search engines to find content.

So with influencer marketing can make sure your business is getting the attention of all the traffic on these platforms.

Only use influencer marketing to build links with nofollow links because links in sponsored content violates Google’s guidelines.

To make sure you stay within the rules, read Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Forums

Forums can help drive traffic to your website and its content.

No, I’m not talking about spamming your links in forums, comments, and other platforms to build high or low quality backlinks.

Forums can add real value when used as one of your off-page SEO techniques.

Use forums to get involved in conversations that relate to your topic, add value as an expert or enthusiast and eventually you will be seen as an SEO specialist or SEO expert.

See these platforms as a way to have open discussions with your potential customers who have questions about your topic.

By answering these questions, you will begin building relationships and trust with your audience.

Remember SEO is a long term strategy, so stay committed and put in a bit of effort.

You will see how easily you can build up a strong community and trust from users on forums.

Start with Reddit and Quora as large-scale platforms to use, but don’t forget forums in your niche.

Give it a go because your competitors won’t be there as forums aren’t as mainstream and popular anymore so it will be easier for your voice to get heard.

PR

PR and SEO have come together in digital marketing.

Digital PR is the main link-building technique for a lot of people doing SEOs because you can earn alot of authority links.

Use PR tactics to promote your content and linkable assets

PR can help your off-page SEO by:

Increasing brand awareness.
People searching for your brand.
Increasing referral traffic.

Off-Page SEO Factors for Link Building

As you know link building is a key ranking factor.

And some people use different backlink strategies.

But posting links on forums and paying for links, should not be one.

Because, Google and other search engines penalise unethical and unnatural link placements.

With your link building strategy consider:

Number of domain links: More domains referring traffic to your website, equals more votes of confidence, according to Google.
Link authority: Get votes of confidence from domains with high authority.
Website relevance: Make sure the links are relevant to your website. For example, a link from the National Dog Association to a pet toy company is more valuable than one from a lifestyle blogger.
Anchor text: The hyperlinked text that points to your website should not be spammy but descriptive and relevant.

What to Look for In Off-Page SEO Tools

Using an SEO tool to work on your off-page SEO strategy will save time for more important tasks.

Features to look for in an SEO tool include:

A backlink checker, which details referring domains, anchor texts, linking authority, and more.
A brand monitoring feature to track your competitors and your brand mentions.
A feature that identifies good blogging opportunities.

Example of SEO tools that offer these features include:

SEMrush, compares your website to your competitors and highlights areas for improvement with its backlinks analytics tool.
HubSpot, for help with website audits and recommendation, plus topic development and keyword data tools.
The MozBar extension from Moz, gives instant metrics on any webpage and which is the right fit for you.

Conclusion

An off-page SEO strategy is important

Just as important as your on-page SEO work.

Both work together to determine your website’s ranking and give search engines a full overview of your brand.

So it’s over to you.

What other strategies would you include?

Let me know in the comments below.